NK Finney
@nathankfinney.com
Soldier | Historian | Fellow, Duke Prgrm on American Grand Strategy, IPSI @AtlanticCouncil.bsky.social, & GNSI USF | Ed. @britjnlmilhist.bsky.social | Chair, Advisory Board @milwritersguild.bsky.social | “Orchestrating Power” (@cornellupress.bsky.social)
“Beijing saw the Strait of Hormuz crisis as an opportunity to show the world that it could successfully withstand an oil shock…Perhaps Beijing wants to subtly warn the rest of the world that it could not be brought to its knees by an energy blockade.” www.theatlantic.com/economy/2026...
The Great Chinese Oil Mystery
America’s greatest rival is single-handedly averting a global energy crisis. No one knows how the country is doing it—or why.
theatlantic.com
The American faith in Air power is undiminished since 1945, despite several generations of scholarship and evidence to the contrary. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
The Rise of American Air Power
The Bancroft Prize-winning history of American strategic bombing"Sherry has given us more than just a major contribution to the literature about air power an...
yalebooks.yale.edu
The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 7d agoIf the U.S. wants military action to be effective, Adm. Brad Cooper has said, the U.S. must step up its air attacks, significantly blunting Iran’s missile threat, to try to break the stalemate.
Great reporting from our student journalists at the Duke Chronicle on increases for the most highly paid Duke employees in the wake of unnecessary massive layoffs: www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke...
As cost-cutting began, Duke’s highest-paid employees took big raises
Tax filings reveal administrators, including President Vincent Price and Provost Alex Gallimore, saw their compensation rise in fiscal year 2025. Managers of Duke’s endowment and standout athletics co...
dukechronicle.com
“our government is…reorienting our military and our security apparatus in the region to help enable partners to bring greater security and stability to their countries and, ultimately, development to our neighborhood through an interests-based approach.” americasquarterly.org/article/elbr...
Elbridge Colby on the Opportunities of the “Donroe Doctrine”
The greater U.S. focus on the Western Hemisphere signals a “fundamental change” in the region, writes the U.S. under secretary of war for policy in a guest op-ed.
americasquarterly.org
"In Strategy and Grand Strategy, Joshua Rovner provides an alternate formulation: that grand strategy is not fiction, but rather a theory of national security that constantly interacts with strategy as a theory of war..." issforum.org/roundtables/...
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-51 on Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy
H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Roundtable Review 17-51 Joshua Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy. The Adelphi Series. Routledge, 2025. ISBN: 9781041020042.
issforum.org
Humbled and thrilled to somehow end up on an otherwise all-star roundtable discussion of @jrovner.bsky.social’s latest book, “Strategy and Grand Strategy.” I highly recommend both the discussion and Rovner’s great book! issforum.org/roundtables/...
Jervis Forum Roundtable 17-51 on Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy
H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Roundtable Review 17-51 Joshua Rovner, Strategy and Grand Strategy. The Adelphi Series. Routledge, 2025. ISBN: 9781041020042.
issforum.org
A good time to mention that Orchestrating Power by @nathankfinney.com is now available! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Orchestrating Power by Nathan K. Finney | Hardcover | Cornell University Press
Orchestrating Power explores how the expansion of the American state for the First World War reshaped the nature of governance. This wartime state expansion is examined through the creation, structure...
cornellpress.cornell.edu
Nikki Dean@doctrinatrix.bsky.social · 8mo agoI’m just gonna scootch right by everyone and… *ope*… set this right here in case someone is curious. www.theworldwar.org/news/nationa...
🇺🇸 ORCHESTRATING POWER by Nathan K. Finney examines how the American state expanded for WWI through the Council of Defense system—revealing how local decisions drove national mobilization. #WWI #History #AmericanHistory #Governance Learn more here: https://ow.ly/XhJC50XlQ2n
Product Details
Cornell University Press fosters a culture of broad and sustained inquiry through the publication of scholarship that is engaged, influential, and of lasting significance.
ow.ly
The next issue of the BJMH will be up online on Thursday. One of our Special themed issues. Guest edited by Dr Christian O'Connell we look at 'America and the Second World War 80 Years On', focused on the experiences of a range of marginalised groups during and after the SWW.
Needed a little, sun, sand, and surf. Best beach we’ve found so far since we returned to the mainland. (South of Myrtle Beach, SC)
www.militarywritersguild.org/kohn-fellows
Kohn Fellows — Military Writers Guild
militarywritersguild.org
Military Writers Guild@milwritersguild.bsky.social · last mo.📢 The Military Writers Guild fellows have been announced! The Forge Individual Writing Fellowship fellows are: Michael Farwig and Nicholas Romanow. The Professor Richard H. Kohn Cohort Writing Fellowship fellows are: Arthur Billingsley, Nikki Dean, and Jeremy Kofsky!
www.militarywritersguild.org/forge-fellows
Forge Fellows — Military Writers Guild
militarywritersguild.org
Military Writers Guild@milwritersguild.bsky.social · last mo.📢 The Military Writers Guild fellows have been announced! The Forge Individual Writing Fellowship fellows are: Michael Farwig and Nicholas Romanow. The Professor Richard H. Kohn Cohort Writing Fellowship fellows are: Arthur Billingsley, Nikki Dean, and Jeremy Kofsky!
Super excited these fellowships are up and running! Some great writers working on fun and impactful projects…congrats to them!
Military Writers Guild@milwritersguild.bsky.social · last mo.📢 The Military Writers Guild fellows have been announced! The Forge Individual Writing Fellowship fellows are: Michael Farwig and Nicholas Romanow. The Professor Richard H. Kohn Cohort Writing Fellowship fellows are: Arthur Billingsley, Nikki Dean, and Jeremy Kofsky!
Received an incredibly kind letter from our senior Army Strategist in the mail today. Humbling!
thesimonscenter.org/news/dss-260...
'Orchestrating Power' topic of latest Distinguished Speaker Series event - The Simons Center
The CGSC Foundation and Alumni Association and its Simons Center hosted the third lecture of the 2026 Distinguished Speaker Series at the Lewis and Clark Center on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on June 17,...
thesimonscenter.org
Great time at Leavenworth last night! www.cgscfoundation.org/dss-260617/
'Orchestrating Power' topic of latest Distinguished Speaker Series event - Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc.
The CGSC Foundation and Alumni Association and its Simons Center hosted the third lecture of the 2026 Distinguished Speaker Series at the Lewis and Clark Center on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on June 17,...
cgscfoundation.org
Great chat at Leavenworth tonight…and even better seeing old friends!
Excited to head to Leavenworth next week to talk “Orchestrating Power”! www.cgscfoundation.org/events/dss-2...
Distinguished Speaker Series – Orchestrating Power - Command and General Staff College Foundation, Inc.
You are invited to a Distinguished Speaker Series dinner event on June 17, 2026, in the atrium of the Lewis and Clark Center on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
cgscfoundation.org
The architecture of the internet creates risks for democracy | Science. Really important short-read from Stephan Lewandowsky. Might be of interest to @brianstelter.bsky.social & @jayrosen.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The architecture of the internet creates risks for democracy
Will democracy survive the internet? Do we need to choose between Facebook’s surveillance capitalism or democracy? Layered lines of evidence can inform questions like these. When considered together, ...
science.org
Extremely glad to see the tech is catching up to the need…I remember advocating for this requirement a decade ago…
Naval News@navalnews.com · 2mo agoThe Pentagon is looking to procure dozens of unmanned surface vessels (USV) to deliver to support U.S. Army logistics operations under contested environments in the Indo-Pacific 🇺🇸 By @aaronmatthewil.bsky.social www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...
“The third generation—social and AI both—can have empowerment and convenience together. But…it requires treating decentralization not as a technical preference but as the architecture democracy actually needs.” www.liberalism.org/p/enshittifi...
Enshittification, Despotification, and the Open Internet
It’s not about whether technology is inherently good or bad, liberating or oppressive. Architecture shapes incentives; incentives shape outcomes.
liberalism.org
Why are so many dooming on US? "The present kaleidoscope of declinist discourse reflects the cumulative wreckage of US domestic class war, imperial destruction, and competition with China into a staggering array of diagnosis & prescription" Tim Barker in our first PW issue bsky.app/profile/phen...
Phenomenal World@phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 2mo ago“American structural power had endured not despite, but because of the doomsayers.” Tim Barker reads Samuel Huntington on US “declinism” from the Cold War to the present. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/his...
Thanks to Miranda Melcher @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social for a great conversation about “Orchestrating Power”! newbooksnetwork.com/orchestratin... @bethanywasik.bsky.social @cornellupress.bsky.social @silbey.bsky.social
Nathan K. Finney, "Orchestrating Power: The American Associational State in the First World War" (Cornell UP, 2025) - New Books Network
newbooksnetwork.com
I spent more time on this piece than almost anything else I've written in the last year. Building a better, more decentralized internet is an inherent necessity if you want a functioning democracy. I hope people find it a useful encapsulation of where we're at. www.liberalism.org/p/enshittifi...
Enshittification, Despotification, and the Open Internet
It’s not about whether technology is inherently good or bad, liberating or oppressive. Architecture shapes incentives; incentives shape outcomes.
liberalism.org
Zurich as fun…spent the entire day just wandering and decompressing before heading home tomorrow. A family trip for the ages…
